January 25, 2014

Personally, I love Amazon reviews. Yes, some review items they've never read or used. But Amazon lets me vote those down as unhelpful.

The first review for a product is always the one other customers have found most helpful, and it is certainly not always a 5 star one.

I also tend to check the 1 star ones. Those that aren't just hateful for no good reason often point out things I really want to know about the book or product.

Reviewer rank also matters: If a reviewer is in the top 1000, I pay special attention to their comments, especially if they paid for the product themselves, rather than getting it free for review as Vine reviewers. On the other hand, reviews that beg to be rated helpful rarely are - they seem more intended to help a reviewer defend his or her top ranking than to objectively review a product or book for the benefit of others.

Full disclosure: I am an Amazon Vine reviewer, and was once briefly in the top 1000, until I offended a lot of liberals by rating down a book I disliked by one of their heroes.

What keeps my reviews honest is that I really do want to pay forward the help I've gotten from other Amazon reviews, and really don't care about my reviewer rank or even whether I remain a Vine reviewer.

Like everything in life, not just the internet, you need to build up your "critical thinking" or if you didn't go to college, your BS detector. It's not that hard to get a sense the author is just blowing smoke, either way. Like viruses, you have to inoculate yourself by controlled exposure.

At Amazon I only look at the ones posted by "Amazon Verified Purchase " figuring at least it is from someone who bought the item. Though that leaves open a competitor having someone purchase the item just to post a negative review.

In looking at any "very postive" or "very negative" review I read the comments to see if they are actually talking about the product, or just spewing out dislike or hyped praise.

If it becomes pretty clear at all someone is doing is using hyperbole without any real issue/knowledge of the product, then I quickly dismiss that review as irrelevant. When it is clear that they are speaking about the product in terms of what is good, what works, and what could represent an improvement of a specific issue, then I trust that review.

AnonymousF1CB ...looks at the reviews very much as I do. The ratio between the 5 and 4 star versus the 1 and two star reviews. Unfortunately, lately there has been an increase in reviews by shills. These are the five star reviews, usually two or three lines long by reviewers with NO OTHER REVIEWS. Robots most likely.

As far "Amazon Verified Purchase", I tried to buy a product from Amazon only to have it arrive damaged beyond use, twice. I ended up buying it from a local merchant. I got flack from Amazon and other reviewers for putting in a review of something I ended up not buying from Amazon. But I felt that even unsuccessful purchases are a legitimate part of the buying experience. Especially since the reason the product arrived damaged was directly related to the way Amazon packaged it for shipment.

Lastly, certain product especially movies or tv series can be falsely pumped up by rabid fans who attack any negitive reviews. I posted a negative review of The Wire and saw 20 "unhelpful" votes within an hour. For anyone who cares about their standings in the reviewers rating, reviews with large numbers of unhelpful votes badly effect their standing. If you care about that, by deleting the review you improve your standings. I don't give a sh*t, so my review is still there.

Personally, I love Amazon reviews. Yes, some review items they've never read or used. But Amazon lets me vote those down as unhelpful.

The first review for a product is always the one other customers have found most helpful, and it is certainly not always a 5 star one.

I also tend to check the 1 star ones. Those that aren't just hateful for no good reason often point out things I really want to know about the book or product.

Reviewer rank also matters: If a reviewer is in the top 1000, I pay special attention to their comments, especially if they paid for the product themselves, rather than getting it free for review as Vine reviewers. On the other hand, reviews that beg to be rated helpful rarely are - they seem more intended to help a reviewer defend his or her top ranking than to objectively review a product or book for the benefit of others.

Full disclosure: I am an Amazon Vine reviewer, and was once briefly in the top 1000, until I offended a lot of liberals by rating down a book I disliked by one of their heroes.

What keeps my reviews honest is that I really do want to pay forward the help I've gotten from other Amazon reviews, and really don't care about my reviewer rank or even whether I remain a Vine reviewer.

I love them too. You can usually tell how thoughtful the review is. I especially like it when reviewers tell whether a product did what they needed it to do. Sometimes a product can be fine for most people, but it doesn't work so well in a specific situation. If the reviewer is fair is discussing this, I give that review a lot of credit.

At least you get more info than you usually get from a store salesperson who only has one or two brands to push.

I look at Amazon reviews all the time but with skepticism. Some complaints are silly - no one could expect somethings the critic wants. I look for ratios. If there are 5x five star reviews to one star reviews, that's a fair product. If there are 10x five star reviews to one star reviews, it's outstanding. Customer service complaints are not relevant to me. Every manufacturer can deliver a dud. With Amazon's 30 day return policy, there's no need to stay with a dud. I also look for design defects trending.

I always look at Amazon reviews. Usually I'll skip the 5 star ones though. It just seems that the 4 star reviews are more realistic. I mean how many products have you bought recently that you rave about?

As for Yelp, I don't use that much. My Gym has posters at the front desk begging for good reviews on Yelp. Why? So the gym can get even more crowded?

Good points here, especially the one about 1 in 5 reviews is very different from 1 in 5 reviewers. Something else..in a poll designed to see who is lying to Amazon, it is more than possible some people are lying to the people who did this study.

I read reviews on Amazon and post reviews the occasionally. I almost always read both the positive and negative reviews. I frequently find the negative reviews [at least for things I might really be interested in buying] to be just pathetically weird. Either the reviewer didn't know what kind of product they were buying, or expected it to do or be something pretty impossible, or were obsessing over something I find really trivial.

That said, I figure if I can live with the worst rational thing said in the most negative reviews I'll buy it. That is usually the case. I even bought some Carhartt overalls for my son [a really good thing this year, huh?] and some idiot reviewed them as having a problem of the inseam being too long. First, they can be shortened, you know. Second the Carhartt website tells you how to figure out the correct inseam [which is different from ordinary since, oddly enough, they go on over your regular wear]. I mean, really.

I was recently approached by a company from whom I made a purchase through Amazon. They offered me a very nice discount on all future purchases IF I left a positive review and it would be a "Amazon verified purchase".

Reminds me of a few years back when companies were actively offering cash payouts for people who write positive Yelp reviews. It worked. Yelp is now worthless... at least to me. I can only hope that Amazon can find a way around human greed, but that is like trying to get around death and taxes.

Like everything in life, not just the internet, you need to build up your "critical thinking" or if you didn't go to college, your BS detector. It's not that hard to get a sense the author is just blowing smoke, either way. Like viruses, you have to inoculate yourself by controlled exposure.

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